Mojave Moon

In Spring 2017, I visited the Mojave Desert – Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley, Landers, Pioneertown – on a stealth research mission; I returned a few months later for a residency with Andrea Zittel. The high desert is an incredible place, and like most people who visit it, I felt awed and replenished by its harsh alien beauty and all of the strange art inspired by it.

I met a woman there who told me that if I focus my eyes on a star and send it a message, it may not be a star at all, but perhaps a UFO. I tried this that night, focusing my energy on the brightest star in the sky. It flashed a faint rainbow aura and turned out to be Jupiter.

I returned home to bad news, as is the norm in 2017, and spent a day grounding myself in creating these images. They are an ode to the colors and textures of the Mojave, the constance of the moon, and the smallness of my existence.